1930's Copy-Cat Dress for Naomi

Description

My friend Naomi loves this dress by Stop Staring
However she couldn’t afford the £150 that it sells for in the UK; I (foolishly) said that I would try and make something close to the original for her.
This is the result. It’s not perfect and some of the steps were a nightmare but it turned out OK! I used a ‘stiff’ black stretch bengaline for the dress and pink striped/ridged bengaline for the kick pleats and covered buttons. I inserted pink ribbon as piping across the bust and around the collar, I also used it to bind the arm holes. The dress has a back zip and hook and eye closures at the neckline.
It took a lot of work to make this and although the result is nowhere as nice as the original I have learnt a lot and Naomi loves it! I have never made clothes for anyone but myself before so this was something of a challenge!
This was also my first time drafting a pattern from scratch and I had to make quite a few alterations to fit my friend properly (She also lost weight during the process!). Saying that I was impressed by how welI it came together, I am most pleased with the way the collar turned out and the kick pleats. I will definitely be using the techniques learned in the making of this again.
I wouldn’t recommend the’stiff’ bengaline to anyone as a dress making material though as it is very intractable and awkward to work with! The softer bengaline used for accents was a dream to work with and the piping was suprisingly straight forward too.
Sorry I don’t have more pictures of Naomi wearing the dress, I only snapped a few blurry shots on my phone camera before she took it!! I will add more when she returns from her holiday in France. I have included a picture of the original Stop Staring dress to show where the idea for this dress came from.

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Wow! I do hope your friend appreciated the time put into this dress. I can imagine how long it took! You did an amazing job and now your friend has a perfectly fitted hand made dress that is worth far more than £150! It looks fab on her. The fit is incredible! Hats off to you!

1 Reply

i love this dress andd i think your version is as good as the original. very impressed that you drafted the entire dress and made it for your friend. I’m too scared to make anything for a friend although i imagine the fitting process is much easier?

1 Reply

It involved a lot of measuring and poking her with pins ;0) In some ways it was easier but was a real learning curve as I am a lot bigger and had to think about things differently! Thanks for your lovely comment! x

09/2017

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